Health Canada paid social media influencers more than $680,000

During the Covid pandemic, Health Canada paid out more than $680,000 to social media influencers on Twitter (now X) to ''build the department’s credibility'

Image courtesy Analytics Vidhya.

Trudeau gov’t paid Twitter influencers $682,000 | Western Standard | Christopher Oldcorn:

December 14, 2023 - "Records show the department of health has given over $680,000 to Twitter 'influencers' since 2021. According to Blacklock’s Reporter, tweeters received payment to show support for government programs without revealing that they were paid for their posts.... The figures were disclosed at the request of Conservative MP Michelle Ferreri (Peterborough-Kawartha, ON), who asked 'What are the details of all expenditures on social media influencers?' Payments over two years totalled $682,166. Talent fees paid to individual influencers were not detailed.

"The Inquiry said paid influencers used the Twitter handles AlanisDesilets, ArcticMakeup, BreCarpeRuns, CaleonTwins, CassandraBouchard, CharlotteB123, ChelazonLeroux, ChKairyn, ChristineKissickHome, DanielleIsAnxious, DashingDad_YYC, DoTheDaniel, EveMartel, FleurMaison, IAmSukhManGill, Indigenous_Baddie, ItsChrisRobins, JahJahBanks, JemmyEchd and JoselyneEffa. Other paid influencers were Life_With_Benjamin, MomRdy2Go, OhKairyn, PascaleDeblois, PlayingWithApparelMen, RafaelLeroy, Riddjyy, ShaneWhalley, ShoshanaRose, SidAfz, ThatWarriorPrincess, TheDadCode, TheDiyMommy, TheLoistGirlsGuide, TheTinaSingh, ThreeLittleSeedlings, TresDuchelle, TychonCarter, UrduMom, VahineLefebvre, VardaEtienne and YoutheCEO.

"The health department disclosed its Influencer Marketing Program in a March 24, 2021, notice to contractors without detailing the cost. Twitter stars were paid to 'build the department’s credibility' and told they must not 'tarnish Health Canada’s or the Government of Canada’s reputation'.... Cabinet defended the practice at the time. 'The Government of Canada and the scientific committees that advise it and Health Canada are providing information to Canadians to the best of their ability and in real-time,' said Senator Marc Gold (QC), Government Representative in the Senate. 

"Critics described it as a propaganda effort.  'Health Canada has hired social media influencers and minor celebrities to tout the great work it’s doing on Canada’s response to the pandemic,' then-Senator Linda Frum (ON) said at the time. 'These government-paid influencers are not required to reveal they are government-paid influencers because that, of course, would be very embarrassing,' said Senator Frum, who described the campaign as a tax-funded attempt to 'spread disinformation about Health Canada’s response to the pandemic.'"

Read more: https://www.westernstandard.news/news/trudeau-govt-paid-twitter-influencers-682000/51043

Health Canada report calls for zero alcohol consumption

A Health Canada-funded report recommends zero alcohol consumption, and calls for mandatory warning labels on all alcoholic beverages as a first step to that goal.

What's behind Canada's drastic new alcohol guidance | BBC News - Holly Honderich:

Warning labels on liquor bottles in Yukon, Canada, 2020. Canadian Centre for Substance Abuse / CBC.

January 17, 2023 - "In Canada, it should be Dry January all year round, according to new national recommendations that say zero alcohol is the only risk-free approach. If you must drink at all, two drinks maximum each week is deemed low-risk by the government-backed guidance.

"The advice is a steep drop from the previous recommendation, published in 2011. Those guidelines allowed a maximum of 10 drinks a week for women and 15 drinks for men.

"The new report, funded by Health Canada, also suggested mandatory warning labels for all alcoholic beverages....

"The nearly 90-page report, from the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA), details a variety of health risks associated with what was previously considered low alcohol consumption. According to the CCSA, any more than two standard drinks - each the equivalent of a 12-ounce (341ml; 0.6 pints) serving of 5% alcohol beer or a five-ounce (142ml; 0.26 pints) glass of 12% alcohol wine - brings an increase in negative outcomes, including breast and colon cancer. 

"It may be a rude awakening for the roughly 80% of Canadian adults who drink. Canadian experts say the drastic change in guidance - from nearly two drinks per day to two per week - is the result of better research over time....

"The new recommendations put the country out of step with several other Western nations. Australia's national guidance, published in 2020, recommends a maximum of 10 standard drinks a week. France suggests the same. The US recommends no more than two drinks a day for men and one for women, while the UK suggests no more than 14 "units" of alcohol - around six glasses of wine, or pints of beer - per week. But Canada is not a total outlier. As of 2015, the Netherlands' health council recommended that people abstained from alcohol altogether, or drink no more than one standard drink each day.

"It's still an open question whether Canadians - who love their beer almost as much as they love hockey - will be convinced to drink less because of this guidance. According to the Global Drug Survey, in drinking frequency, Canada does not rank in the top 10 countries globally, falling below the global average. But on the measure of 'feeling drunk', Canada jumped to the sixth spot, just behind the US and the UK....

"CCSA scientists and other experts say that mandatory labelling of all alcoholic beverages with health warnings, now common practice for cigarettes, is a necessary first step.... Still, mandating nationwide labelling would require sign-off from Health Canada. In a statement to the BBC, the agency thanked the CCSA for its work, saying alcohol use presents 'serious and complex public health and safety issues'. But it would not comment on adding health warnings to Canadians' drinks."

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64311705

Health authorities flip-flop on face masks

Face Masks in a COVID-19 World: To Wear or Not to Wear? By Dr. Michael Szabo - Come Back Alive:
"Should we wear a face mask when out in public right now? It’s a question many people have since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued its new recommendation that people wear face masks when leaving their homes. Canada’s chief public health officer has echoed the recommendation.

"There is confusion because the CDC and the Public Health Agency of Canada had initially suggested that face masks not be worn in public. The flip-flop in recommendations has triggered many questions."
Read more: https://www.inglegroups.com/cba/en/resource/view/9693

The CDC's Revised Face Mask Advice Is Based on Information That Was Available Months Ago | Reason - Jacob Sullum:
April 6, 2020 - "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revised its advice concerning face masks and COVID-19 last week, telling us to 'cover your mouth and nose with a cloth face cover when around others.' The CDC had previously said that 'if you are NOT sick, you do not need to wear a facemask unless you are caring for someone who is sick (and they are not able to wear a facemask).'

"The official justification for this shift is that the CDC suddenly realized people can transmit the COVID-19 virus even when they do not feel sick. Yet that is something we have known for months.

"'Here's what's changed,' Surgeon General Jerome Adams claimed on Meet the Press yesterday. 'We now know that about 25%, in some studies even more, of COVID-19 is transmitted when you are asymptomatic or presymptomatic.' While that particular estimate, which CDC Director Robert Redfield began floating on March 31, is relatively new, it has been clear at least since February that people can carry the virus for days before they develop symptoms and that some carriers never feel ill.....

"A January 30 letter to The New England Journal of Medicine, based on several cases in Germany, warned that 'asymptomatic persons are potential sources of [COVID-19] infection.' A February 13 letter to the International Journal of Infectious Diseases estimated that 31 percent of people infected by the COVID-19 virus do not have symptoms.... A February 26 Global Biosecurity report noted that 'asymptomatic transmission has been documented' and 'the viral load in symptomatic and asymptomatic people is not significantly different.' A report from the World Health Organization published around the same time nevertheless depicted asymptomatic infection as rare....

"'Seriously people—STOP BUYING MASKS!' Adams tweeted on February 29. 'They are NOT effective in preventing [the] general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can't get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!'

"By that point, it was clear that transmission by asymptomatic or presymptomatic carriers was playing an important role in the pandemic. Now Adams wants us to believe no one knew that until last week. The misguided advice from Adams and the CDC needlessly endangered people who could have benefited from the precautions they are belatedly recommending."

Read more: https://reason.com/2020/04/06/the-cdcs-revised-face-mask-advice-is-based-on-information-that-was-available-months-ago/

Health Canada asked to permit psilocybin therapy

Is Canada constitutionally required to legalize magic mushrooms? — Quartz - Olivia Goldhill:

August 29, 2019 - "A Canadian therapist has asked Health Canada to permit the use of psilocybin, the psychedelic ingredient in magic mushrooms, for medical reasons. If denied, he’s planning to file a lawsuit, claiming the health department’s [refusal] would violate Canadians' right to 'life, liberty, and security of person' — an argument that previously convinced Canadian courts that it is unconstitutional to prohibit medical access to cannabis.....

"Bruce Tobin said he submitted an application with Health Canada in March, asking for approval to treat cancer patients’ end-of-life anxiety with psilocybin. Magic mushrooms are illegal under Canada’s Controlled Drug and Substances Act, but the law has a clause, Section 56(1), which states that the Health Minister may exempt substances if necessary for medical or scientific purposes.

"Tobin is planning to give Health Canada to the end of the year to respond and, if they don’t, will file a motion in federal court asking for a judicial review. If his argument is denied there, he plans to go all the way to the Supreme Court.

"'There have been several landmark cannabis cases in which the High Courts have delivered very explicit judgements that Canadian citizens have the right to autonomy in making healthcare decisions with regards to life and death medical conditions,' said Tobin. Early research has shown that psilocybin therapy is effective at treating end-of-life anxiety. Tobin says he has patients who’ve tried all the alternatives and are in 'abject misery,' and he wants them to have access to psilocybin.

“Tobin isn’t the only one pushing against Canada’s legal system. Dana Larsen, who founded a medical cannabis dispensary in 2007, announced he was launching a medical psilocybin dispensary in June. The dispensary is based in Vancouver and claims to mail psilocybin microdoses to people with a documented medical need; Larsen lists anxiety, cluster headaches, and pain as conditions that can be treated with psilocybin."

“Reat more: https://qz.com/1693840/is-canada-constitutionally-required-to-legalize-magic-mushrooms/
'via Blog this'

Canada's cannabis packaging rules disturbing, says Consumer Choice Center

CNW | Federal Government Plain Packaging Regulations Completely Disregard Consumers and Limit Product Choice (press release) - /CNW Telbec/:

October 12, 2018 - "The Federal Government of Canada is enacting strict branding and packaging restrictions on the legal cannabis market. More specifically, Health Canada has taken the framework of plain packaging tobacco products including cigarettes and cigars, and applied many aspects of that legislation to how legal cannabis products must appear. This mandate from Health Canada limits consumer choice, according to the Consumer Choice Center, and more importantly, prevents consumers from selecting products based on their personal choice.

"Speaking at [a] news conference yesterday held in the Centre Block on Parliament Hill, David Clement, North American Affairs Manager for the Consumer Choice Center (CCC) said the Federal Government seems committed to treating adult consumers like children. The branding restrictions placed on tobacco products, and now cannabis products, shows a disturbing trend of paternalism creeping further into the lives of adult consumers. It's a dangerous precedent and raises the question of what products will be targeted next.

"'What we've seen is that Health Canada and our federal government are regulating products with complete disregard for consumers, and complete disregard for a continuum of risk. Our worry now is what started with tobacco has moved to cannabis, and now will move to other products, such as soft drinks, alcohol and various other food items,' said ... Clement....

"CCC has launched the Smokers Vote initiative where consumers of cannabis, tobacco products and cigars can raise their concerns about plain packaging regulations directly with their elected representatives and engage in direct democracy....

"The Consumer Choice Center is a global advocacy group focused on consumer choice and market access. The CCC monitors regulatory trends around the world, works with consumers in over 100 countries, and engages with policy makers to highlight how certain regulations impact consumer choice."

Read more: https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/federal-government-plain-packaging-regulations-completely-disregard-consumers-and-limit-product-choice-697219141.html
'via Blog this'